Residential Demolition
We tear down houses, mobile homes, and double wides across the Midlands. Full size excavators and dozers do the work, and the lot is left graded and clean. Free estimates from our West Columbia shop.
Service Area
Dirt Cheap is a demolition contractor working in Columbia, South Carolina. Columbia is the state capital and the biggest city in the Midlands, and the housing shows its age. Roughly four in ten homes in Columbia were built before 1970. Shandon, Rosewood, Earlewood, Eau Claire and Waverly are packed with small lots and older frame houses. When one of those houses burns, or sits empty long enough to be tagged unsafe, it has to come down. The University of South Carolina and Fort Jackson keep people moving through town, and older rental houses take the wear. The old state hospital campus on Bull Street shows the same pattern on a bigger scale. Buildings came down there, and new ones went up on the same ground. Decker Boulevard, off Two Notch Road, still carries vacant lots and long-empty buildings.
Dirt Cheap is a family run business, and it is woman owned. Our crew runs the equipment and is on the job site every day, so the crew that prices your job is the crew that runs the equipment. Our shop sits on Edmund Highway in West Columbia, on the Lexington County side of the river. Columbia is a short run up the highway and over the Congaree from us. We bring full-size excavators and dozers, the machines built for demolition work, plus a tri-axle dump truck and trailers. That covers taking an old house or double wide off a lot and small commercial buildings and church teardowns. We also do storm drain and utility digging and leveling ground for a new build. We put in gravel driveways, pour concrete flatwork and install septic systems too. Estimates are free. Call (803) 796-4727.
Tell us about the structure, lot or job and we will get right back to you.
The city keeps a running list of buildings that sit vacant, wrecked or unsafe. Code Enforcement writes the owner, then sets a hearing date. If nothing gets repaired, the building lands on the demolition list. Columbia has taken down more than a hundred abandoned houses and structures in recent years. Around Elmwood Park and Cottontown, a cleared lot does not stay empty long. New apartments and infill houses keep going in. We take those buildings down and clear what is left on the lot.
Richland County runs a similar process outside the city limits. The county does not pay for demolition on private property, so the cost falls to the owner. We price the teardown, the debris and the dirt work as one job. Debris leaves on our own trucks as part of the job. Burnt houses get worked down with the excavator from a safe distance, since fire leaves a frame you cannot trust. We do the same work over in Cayce on the west bank and north of town in Blythewood.
A teardown inside the city limits goes through the City of Columbia Development Center. The packet needs the permit application, a signed letter from the property owner, and a site plan. That site plan lists the address, the tax map sheet number, the buildings coming down and the method. If protected street trees sit near the work, a tree protection plan goes in with it. Property inside a design or historic district gets extra review. In Shandon, any structure 50 years or older gets that look before it comes down. Anything sitting in the floodway carries extra requirements too. Outside the city line, the Richland County building department handles the same permit.
Columbia sits on the fall line, where the red clay hills meet the sandy coastal plain. A lot here can be loamy sand on top with clay underneath. Dry ground digs fast, and the same ground turns slick after a hard rain. Gills Creek and Rocky Branch both ran far over their banks in the October 2015 flood. Owners near those creeks think hard about how water leaves a lot. When a slab or a crawl space comes out, the ground is left low and needs fill. Michelle Gumm said in her Google review: "Even brought in fill to level the area out." The same machines that work Columbia work the rest of the Midlands.
Communities & areas we serve around Columbia: Shandon, Rosewood, Earlewood, Eau Claire, Elmwood Park, Cottontown, Olympia, Waverly, Hollywood-Rose Hill, Melrose Heights.
Columbia ZIP codes served: 29201, 29203, 29204, 29205, 29206, 29209, 29210, 29223.
We tear down houses, mobile homes, and double wides across the Midlands. Full size excavators and dozers do the work, and the lot is left graded and clean. Free estimates from our West Columbia shop.
Dirt Cheap tears down commercial buildings across the South Carolina Midlands. Strip malls, churches, warehouses and condemned structures come down with full-size excavators and dozers. We work out of a shop in West Columbia.
We clear wooded and overgrown lots across the Midlands, half acre house sites and multi acre tracts alike. Full size excavators and dozers take out the trees, the brush, and the stumps. Our shop is in West Columbia and estimates are free.
Grading and site prep out of our West Columbia shop. We cut building pads, level low yards, and reshape wet ground so water runs off. Estimates are free anywhere in the Midlands.
Dirt Cheap digs site excavation, utility and drainage trenches, and storm drain repairs across the Midlands. Our shop sits in West Columbia, and we run full size excavators and dozers. Estimates are free.
We install gravel driveways across the Midlands, on short residential lots and on quarter mile rural drives. Our crew strips the soft topsoil first, then builds the stone base in packed lifts. We also regrade rutted drives and top them back up with fresh stone.
Real reviews from real demolition, excavation and site work jobs on Google.
Storm drain repair for apartment complex fixed twice, both required a large excavation. Did both jobs quickly and for a great price. Would highly recommend.
Awesome Company. Contracted them to demolish a double wide on my property. They did it quickly and cleaned up great. Even brought in fill to level the area out. Marked the septic system as required.
Stop looking. You've found the most reliable, dependable and honest company for all of your hauling and clearing needs and beyond. Awesome folks to deal with through and through.
I have had them complete two jobs and they were here right away, completed and cleaned up immediately. Great people to deal with and very pleased with the jobs. Highly recommend.
I had an emergency involving my mobile home, not only was it after hours when they made the decision to come help me. The next morning they showed up and went above and beyond their call of duty as far as the job I hired them to do. Great people, fantastic work!
Great company to work with, very responsive and will make sure the job is done right!!
A few of the questions we hear most around Columbia. Don't see yours? Call the office and ask.
A structure that needs to come down, a lot that needs clearing, a driveway that needs help, a septic system going in? Call or send the form and we will come look at the property and price the job. The estimate is free.
Tell us about the structure, lot or job and we will get right back to you.